[May 13, 2014]I think I have
had a reconsideration regarding the minimum wage. I understand it is
likely that some employers will have to downsize their staff numbers
in order to meet a new payroll increased by a minimum wage increase
mandate. That inevitably will cause some to lose their jobs since
the employer will not be able to pass the payroll increase on to
customers or clients.
But for the vast majority of employees who work for minimum wage presently
will likely be able to keep their jobs since the employer will be able to
pass the increased cost onto customers. The extra money has to come from
some place, so increasing prices for services or products will likely be the
only alternative most employers will have. That of course is the negative
side of the increased minimum wage issue.
The positive side of the equation of this issue is for those people who are
making the current $7.25 per hour minimum wage will immediately see an
increase in their personal paycheck. Justifiably, the argument is those
employees who make that wage are unable to support themselves or a family at
that level of income. For them the possibility of having even a small
increase in wage is almost hopeless, especially for those in the service
field such as restaurants where employers tend to pay less than minimum wage
and expect the waitperson’s tips to make up the difference. So for that
group of people who are depending on their wage to sustain their sustenance
of life, it will be a great boost for them to have a raise they can count on
to help in their daily living.
As a taxpayer and humanitarian we must look toward the greatest benefit for
those in need. It will likely cost more as prices edge upward because of
higher prices for goods and services, but for those who will benefit from
the increase in wage it should be worth it for them to have more income on
which to live. Eventually, as it always does, the prices will drift up and
settle at a place where it will cost more, but in the meantime those who are
in the greatest need will have experienced a glimmer of hope and joy, at
least momentarily providing a respite from the depths of poverty.
In the long run when the economy levels out and even begins to grow, more
people will be in jobs that do not have to depend on minimum wage level
salary. Those jobs have traditionally been the mainstay of teenagers,
non-skilled workers and part-time, temporary jobs. Those jobs have never
been considered a career-type job where a head-of-household wage earner
would remain for a life-time of work. Those jobs have helped youth in high
school or early college years close the gap of either having or not having
spending money for their teen-age years. As the economy has gone south with
recessions and inflation more people who do have families have yielded to
the need to have the lower paying jobs just to make ends meet. The
devastation this has caused has been those single Moms who have resorted out
of necessity to take the lower, hourly minimum wage positions just to fee
their children.
Therefore, considering the United States has
been in an economic slump over the past five or six years even
though the politicians are telling us the recession is over, the
person who buys gasoline, shops for groceries, pays fees for their
children to attend school, buys clothes, pays utility bills, house
payments all know the politicians who make hundreds of thousands of
dollars of taxpayer money in their own salaries really have no
credibility in telling someone on a minimum wage that the recession
is over. If for no other reason other than the rising cost of living
in our country, the minimum wage should be raised just to allow for
that cost of living increase.
The major problem I see in the issue of minimum wage is that it has
to depend on the federal government for the most part to establish a
practice on private citizens by using the force of law. If the
politicians were to actually try to work together on this issue
rather than using their own partisanship practices to “follow their
party line” as always, the solution could be found that would lessen
the strain on small business employers and provide the benefits of
an increased wage for those lowest income wage earners. We, and
they, should look for ways to empathetically help those who are
working to help themselves by both lowering the government wage
confiscatory practices and helping to increase the value of work by
increasing the living standard of those who do work.
